Where play meets politics

Gender rights at Olympics emerge as the next frontier where sports and politics are set to collide

Every four years when the Olympics come around, the world’s politicians mouth absurdities about how “sports and politics should not mix”. And, every Olympics emphasise that sports is definitely politics by other means.

Apart from now-forgotten idiocy about “amateurism”, previous Olympics are remembered for showboating by dictatorial regimes (1936, 2008), the massacre of athletes (1972), Black Power protests (1968), post-war triumphalism (1948), boycotts triggered by geopolitical events (1980, 1984), etc. The upcoming Paris Olympics also has plenty of noise and fury centred on Russian and Belarusian participation, or the lack of it.

But Paris 2024 could also be controversial